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He’s going to get the question, and he’s going to have to know how to answer it.

Whether Mitt Romney likes it or not, gay marriage is now an issue in this election. Sure, give it a week and it won’t be monopolizing every headline anymore, but it’s not going away as an issue. The media will make sure of that. Because the media knows, just as well as Biden did when he made his latest “gaffe,” and just as well as Obama did in yesterday’s interview, that what the President needs for the next five months is distractions and sideshows, bright lights and candy.

Indeed, the Wild and Wonderful Obama Distraction Carnival has already opened. No tickets, no lines. Just pony rides and funnel cakes. And of course, we all now what we are supposed to be distracted from. The economy, stupid. And stupid is exactly what he hopes we are.

Crippling debt? What debt? Look over here, we have birth control! And crazy Catholics! And Sandra Fluke!

The unfortunate thing about bread and circuses is that they tend to be very effective in what they are designed to do, which is to stop the seething masses from seething too much and leave them as just masses. Happy, fat, and stupid masses. A long time ago it was the Colosseum. Today it’s called Reality TV, but it basically consists of the same things: sex, violence, and degenerate Italians. Are you not entertained?

And now Obama is using the same tried and true methods to take the focus away from where Romney wants it and put it…anywhere else. First contraception, then Osama, and now gay marriage. Like so much glitter being thrown in the eyes of the American electorate.

Mitt and Ann Romney

Anyway, the issue of gay marriage is going to keep coming up, in interviews, debates, and what have you, and Romney needs to solidify his position. He is by no means wishy-washy in his tone when he speaks of his support for traditional marriage between a man and a woman.

But so far, Romney hasn’t seemed to articulate a very strong foundation for his views. He leaves us with no doubt as to where he stands, but do we know why he stands there? Does he?

Saying you believe something because you have always believed it is not a reason for believing something. Just the same, stating that marriage should be between a man and a woman because that’s the way it has always been is by itself not a good reason. Not necessarily bad, just not necessarily good either.

The reason this is important for Romney is because he is going to get nailed with questions on this from the media, and it will be on their terms. And their terms, wonder of wonders, are those of President Obama and the gay marriage movement. It is the hallowed language of civil rights, and equality, and the “right side of history,” and once your opponent sets the field in that context, you best know what you’re talking about and be able to state not only your convictions but the principles from which they derive.

Yesterday, Obama marched right out and grabbed the moral highground. During the interview, in which he stopped just short of declaring “If I had a husband he would look like Freddie Mercury,” the President stated that he “stood on the side of broader equality for the LGBT community” and that therefore, in his view, gay couples should be able to get married.

Romney needs to be able to defend his views on traditional marriage in clear and principled terms. Someone on his staff needs to sit him down on his next flight from here to there, put some writings of Robert P. George or Steve White in his hands and say “You need to read this.”

We know that Romney opposes same sex marriage. America needs to know why.

I agree. I think that Romney and others who remain opposed to marriage quality should keep trying to explain why. In doing so, they demonstrate to the fence sitters that there is no rational, legally sound, rooted-in-facts justification for their position. All of those Maggie Gallagher style explanations with their dizzying circular logic (i.e. “I oppose gay marriage because if gay marriage is legal I’ll be criticized for opposing gay marriage”) may sound credible to people looking for validation for their anti-gay bias. To everyone else, it just sounds like nonsense – just a thin veil tossed over religious-based bigotry. So yes, Mitt Romney needs to tell America why he opposes civil marriage rights for the gay and lesbian citizens that he wants to lead. His explanation will no doubt include the same tired talking points, baseless claims, and circular logic that have become so familiar. He will give comfort to those who are unshakeable in their opposition to gay rights while providing more evidence to those who, like our President, continue to evolve on the issue, that there really are no good reasons to oppose marriage equality.

“Yes. I firmly believe that two is equal to two, and that people are equal before the law of God and the law of Nature. What I DON’T believe is that ‘equal’ means ‘identical,’ nor do I believe that the law of man can supersede the law of Nature. So, for example, I don’t believe that legislating the times of the tides would be a good idea. Natural law is going to win over man’s idea of ‘equality’ every time they conflict.

Here’s the problem: at the root of the anti-gay marriage movement is anti-gay sentiment. Now, of course, we as Catholics know that we love our brothers and sisters with same-sex attraction, but we (and Christ) demand that they not act on those attractions. Yes, it’s hard to hear that you must go through life without any chance of having sex, even if you are in a committed relationship, but that’s the law that God set down.

It’s getting Independents weaned on decades of gay-produced Hollywood content to see our beliefs as anything shy of cruel that is the big challenge.

The referendum on gay marriage is simply a proxy for a referendum on homosexuality. We just need to get people to see that our demand that gays not have sex is rooted in our desire for them to spend eternity with our Lord.

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